Root and Kumogakure

He quickened his pace, deliberately "leaking" a trace of Chakra fluctuation—

It was very faint, but enough for a professional tracker to catch.

The route he chose also began to appear "hasty": he bypassed a mountain pass that could have been easily traversed and left a half-formed, blurred footprint by the stream.

He even "accidentally" allowed his kunai to leave fresh, jagged cuts on the branches he brushed past.

He was laying out an obvious "escape route," pointing toward a dense coniferous forest to the southeast.

And there, according to the intelligence he had "extracted" from the Kumogakure kunoichi earlier.

There happened to be an elite twelve-man Kumogakure reconnaissance squad active, led by a Jonin skilled in Lightning Release and swordsmanship.

To kill with a borrowed knife, one must always find a sharp blade.

Two hours later, deep in the coniferous forest.

Four Root ninjas moved through the shadows like ghosts.

They wore identical beast-patterned masks, their movements uniform, silent, and seamless.

"The target's trail is fresh, no more than ten minutes old," the Root operative codenamed Hai whispered.

"He is intentionally leading us," the ninja codenamed Fu said in a hoarse voice.

"The trail is too obvious, as if he's afraid we might lose him."

"Is there a trap?" Yu asked.

"Doesn't look like it. It's more like... he's panicked and lost his way," the leader, Shen, mused.

"After all, he's just an eleven-year-old child. Even with some special abilities, it's not strange for his mind to break after seeing such a slaughter on his first real, brutal battlefield. Danzo's judgment was correct; this is a good opportunity. While he is distracted, we will dispose of him and frame it as the work of Kumogakure."

"Understood."

The four accelerated once more.

Then, they burst out of the coniferous forest and collided head-on with a clearing.

And within that clearing, twelve pairs of eyes widened in shock, instantly turning into murderous intent.

Twelve Kumogakure ninjas were resting around a dead campfire.

They wore standard Kumogakure combat uniforms, their headbands gleaming, and they carried a distinct scent of blood—evidently, they had just finished a battle not long ago.

The leader was a burly man with a cross-shaped scar on his face, his hand already pressed against the short sword at his back.

Time seemed to freeze for a second.

"Konoha dogs!" the scarred man roared.

"Kill!" The Root leader, Shen, gave the order without a moment's hesitation.

There was no room for explanation, no possibility of a misunderstanding.

In this border region where two nations were at war, an encounter meant a fight to the death.

Lightning exploded!

The scarred man's short sword was wreathed in blinding electricity, slashing straight at Shen's face!

Shen retreated rapidly, his hands forming seals: "Wind Release: Vacuum Wave!"

The invisible wind blades collided with the lightning blade, erupting in a harsh, metallic screech.

Almost simultaneously, the other three Root members clashed with the Kumogakure ninjas.

Kunai collided, ninjutsu roared, and the sounds of screams, shouts, and tearing flesh instantly filled the woods.

The Root ninjas were individually stronger and coordinated perfectly, but Kumogakure had the numbers.

Moreover, their combat style was fearless; trading injury for injury was a daily occurrence.

The battle entered a white-hot intensity the moment it began.

Meanwhile, on a high ridge less than three hundred meters from the battlefield.

Uchiha Ryūha sat on a flat stone, a small alcohol stove set up in front of him.

A kettle rested on the stove, the water just beginning to boil.

He methodically placed tea leaves into a portable teapot and poured in the hot water.

The fresh aroma of tea soon permeated the air, forming a bizarre and ironic contrast to the scent of blood drifting from afar.

"Lord Ryūha, they are..." Matsumoto Ryūichi lay in the grass beside him, observing the battle through binoculars, his voice strained.

"Dogs biting dogs—is it a good show?" Uchiha Ryūha poured himself a cup of tea and blew on the steam.

Haruno Kazuya swallowed hard: "But, but they are Konoha comrades..."

"Comrades?" Uchiha Ryūha smiled, a smile devoid of any warmth. "Those who watch your back, ready to stab you at any moment—do you call those comrades?"

The two Genin boys were speechless.

"Just watch," Uchiha Ryūha sipped his tea.

"This is war. There is no absolute black or white; only those who survive have the right to define right and wrong."

The battle below had reached its end.

The four members of Root were indeed formidable; after killing eight Kumogakure Chunin, they had only paid the price of two lives.

However, the scarred leader from Kumogakure was exceptionally fierce, completely abandoning his defense in the final moments.

He took a Wind Style jutsu head-on with his chest, driving his lightning-wreathed short blade into the abdomen of Shen.

Mutual destruction.

The last severely wounded Root member, Yu, was pinned to the ground and stabbed to death by two surviving Kumogakure Genin using kunai.

The forest returned to silence, leaving behind nothing but a field of corpses and an impenetrable stench of blood.

Uchiha Ryūha set down his teacup and stood up.

"It's our turn to take the stage."

He led his squad into that field of Asura.

The only ones still alive were two dying Kumogakure Genin and the scarred Kumogakure leader, whose abdomen had been pierced but who had not yet breathed his last.

"Kyōka Suigetsu."

Uchiha Ryūha did not even release his Zanpakuto; a faint blue light merely flashed across his pupils.

The world in the eyes of the three dying men changed silently.

In their hallucinations, the final scene was: the two surviving Root ninjas, Yu and Hai, roaring as they lunged forward.

They detonated explosive tags in a suicidal maneuver, burying themselves in a sea of fire along with their enemies.

Heroic, valiant, and fitting the classic script of Konoha ninjas "sacrificing their lives for righteousness."

Then, their consciousness sank completely into darkness.

Uchiha Ryūha walked to the corpse of Yu and picked up the kunai he had been gripping tightly.

He added wounds to several Kumogakure corpses that were consistent with "post-explosion debris," then scattered fragments of explosive tags around the area.

Finally, he picked up Yu's standard-issue Root short blade, stained it with blood, and carved a few words into a relatively intact tree trunk nearby:

"Konoha personnel, fought to the death without retreat."

The handwriting was sharp, carrying a sense of finality.

"Let's go." Uchiha Ryūha threw the short blade away as if it were something filthy.

"Here..." Fujiwara Itsuki looked at the carnage covering the ground.

"Someone will find it." Uchiha Ryūha turned around. "A Kumogakure patrol, or a Konoha search and rescue team.

They will see a scene where Root ninjas 'died heroically, taking the enemy with them.'

A decent military achievement, and a few posthumous medals."

He paused, his voice as light as a sigh:

"Danzo should like this ending.

After all, his men all died 'very valuably'."

The four of them prepared to leave.

Just then—

At Uchiha Ryūha's waist, the short blade gifted by Hatake Sakumo, engraved with the Hatake Family Crest, began to vibrate violently without warning.

It was not a resonance of Chakra, but something more primal—a trembling, as if a beast had encountered its natural predator.

Uchiha Ryūha looked up abruptly, staring at the top of a distant hill stained blood-red by the setting sun.

A figure stood there.

Against the light, the face was obscured, revealing only a lean silhouette.

A ninja sword was strapped to his back, and a chilling, murderous aura radiated from his entire body.

A cold voice rang out.

"Are people from Konoha always this cold-blooded?"

Uchiha Ryūha's pupils contracted slightly.

The setting sun sank below the horizon.

The final ray of twilight stretched their shadows into two blades about to collide.